A day after facing the wrath of the Madras High Court for not appearing in person in a case of contempt of judiciary, the Chennai Commissioner of Police S. George on Friday undertook to be present in court on Wednesday next at 2.15 p.m.
The issue pertains to a contempt plea against the top police officer, in which he failed to appear before the court, but instead prayed the court to dispense with his appearance. Annoyed by the attitude of the officer, Justice N. Kirubakaran on Thursday wondered whether it is a sin for the officer to appear in a court. “If top officers displayed such attitude towards judicial orders how would their subordinates would respect their orders,” the judge had questioned.
The contempt plea was moved by Pon. Thangavelu who was instrumental in bringing to light corruption in Corporation of Chennai in connection with fixing property taxes for properties owned by councillors.
On December 2, 2016, Justice Kirubakaran directed the Commissioner of Police to provide security to the petitioner since he was facing life threats from the councillors. When advocate A.P. Suryaprakasam, counsel for the petitioner brought to the notice of the court that the Commissioner had not obeyed the order so far, the judge censured the senior officer’s non-compliance with the court’s orders.
Refusing to heed to the persuasive attempts made by the Advocate General of Tamil Nadu, the judge directed the Chief Advocate to inform the court as to when would Mr. George appear in the court. As no affirmative answer was given to the court till Tuesday evening, the judge posted the contempt plea as the first item to be heard on Friday.
When the plea came up for hearing, tendering an apology for not providing the details of appearance on Thursday, the Additional Advocate General Venkataramani submitted that the officer would appear on Wednesday. Recording the submission, the Jude posted the plea to March 22 for Mr. George’s appearance.
